Hannah Montana Gave Miley Body Dysmorphia

Miley Cyrus Makes Hannah Montana Sound Like A Nightmare

Miley Cyrus can thank Hannah Montana for propelling her into fame. She also has the Disney show to thank for giving her some major body issues.

The pop star opens up about her stint as a child star in the September issue of Marie Claire. Apparently, playing the girl every tween wanted to be did a number on Miley's confidence and attitude toward beauty.

"From the time I was 11, it was, 'You're a pop star! That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing,'" Cyrus tells the magazine. "Meanwhile, I'm this fragile little girl playing a 16-year-old in a wig and a ton of makeup. It was like Toddlers & Tiaras. I had fucking flippers."

Based on Cyrus' interview, the whole experience sounds like a bit of a nightmare. She developed anxiety issues and seasonal affective disorder from working 12-hour days, and understandably panicked when she got her period for the first time on set. The "embarrassing" experience — involving white pants, no less — made her cry.

"Every morning, I was getting coffee jammed down my throat to wake me up," she says of her time on the show. "I just had to keep going, be tough, be strong. Everything happened to me on that set.

"I would have anxiety attacks," she adds. "I'd get hot flashes, feel like I was about to pass up or throw up. It would happen a lot before shows, and I'd have to cancel. Then the anxiety started coming from anxiety. I would be with my friends, thinking, I should be having so much fun. You get in this hole that seems like you're never going to be able to get out of."

Working on the series also affected how Cyrus saw herself in physical terms.

"I was told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on that show," she admits. "I was made to look like someone that I wasn't, which probably caused some body dysmorphia, because I had been made pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn't on that show, it was like, Who the fuck am I?"

Yikes. That definitely does not sound like a party in the U.S.A. For all the flak Cyrus gets for her wild, more sexualized grown-up image, perhaps we should all cut her some slack? It's about time she enjoyed the opportunity to just be herself.